Your generous
donations help keep
this site running.
Visa/MC/PayPal accepted.
I'm going to paint a picture of how America could scrap the Electoral College system in the next decade, but I make no predictions whatsoever about the chances this could become reality. You'll have to judge that sort of thing for yourselves.
As always, we are here to bring you the burning questions of the day that nobody else is asking. Today's question: What will we call the 2012 women?
We come to you live from the arena, the day after the vice-presidential debate. The lights are being removed, the podiums are gone, and the cleanup crew is sweeping up the tiny, tiny pieces of Paul Ryan which were left all over the stage last night.
Unsolicited advice to the Romney campaign: this is not the way to convince voters that your candidate isn't Thurston Howell III. I'm just sayin'....
Are Colorado voters going to pass Amendment 64 in November, which would legalize recreational (not just medicinal) marijuana use for all adults in the state? The bigger question, should this come to pass, is what is the federal government going to do about it?
The second item of note is that today marks the fifth "birthday" of this column series. September 14, 2007 saw the very first Friday Talking Points column ever (although the name and the column format wouldn't solidify for a few months). Since then, almost every Friday, we've been attempting to provide Democratic talking points for politicians to use to get their point across in a snappy and memorable fashion. How much success we've had doing so is open to interpretation, but we're still here doing it, which tends to indicate that Democrats still have a ways to go to match the Republican ability to keep "on script" during interviews. To put this another way, it's the old Democratic "herding cats" problem.
Here's a radical thought, as we change full-steam into convention season: Could the "marijuana vote" propel Barack Obama to victory in the upcoming election? This may sound a little far-fetched (and might indeed provoke "What are you smoking, dude?" sorts of comments) so please allow me to explain how this demographic could become key to the entire election, in one particular state.
The first night had two large overarching themes: Women's rights, and President Obama's accomplishments. A multitude of women spoke not only about abortion and being pro-choice, but about equal pay for equal labor. However, the dominating pattern was the constant praise of President Obama, and the effectiveness of his policies. Obama's ability to save the auto industry and create jobs for twenty-nine consecutive months was a focal point in why he deserved to be re-elected. In addition, Obamacare and benefits for veterans were mentioned repeatedly by speakers. Last but not least diversity was constantly stressed. I lost count of the number of times I heard the line, "you should be able to defend the country you love, regardless of who you love." Overall, a very strong performance by the Democrats -- they were consistent in their backing of Obama, and unlike the Republicans they gave examples of concrete policies that have actually made a difference.
Just a quick update as the Democratic National Convention gets rolling here.
I wrote a new article last week which is now appearing on the Huffington Post, but I don't have access to the text file of the article right now, nor do I have time to copy and paste and do a bunch of formatting. [...]
I was five when President George Bush "beat" candidate Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. At the time I had no clue about politics or party philosophy. However, I did know Al Gore received more overall votes in the election than George Bush, then the members of Supreme Court voted on who would become the next president, and they elected Bush. The election was the first political event that I can remember clearly in my life, and although I was always bound to be a liberal (given the household I grew up in), that lost election established my anti-conservative opinion. I followed the Kerry/Bush election in 2004 with determination (or at least all the determination a nine-year-old can muster), thinking I could somehow impact the results of the election. Of course I was wrong.